The NJ News Commons is a groundbreaking initiative established to connect news organizations throughout the state. It reflects the commitment of Montclair State University and its innovative School of Communication and Media to ensure that New Jersey’s news ecosystem is healthy, vibrant and dynamic.

By encouraging New Jersey’s news organizations to cooperatively deliver more robust news and analysis of local, regional and statewide matters, Montclair State University is taking a major first step with the NJ News Commons in encouraging civic engagement.

With funding support provided by the University, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Knight Foundation and others, the NJ News Commons is:

• – Highlighting the best in New Jersey journalism and sharing that work through newsletters, tweets and this website.
•  – Encouraging news organizations to share their work, primarily through our Repost.us embeddable news feed initiative.
• – Coordinating stories and initiatives to allow news organizations to work together, such as our #NJSandy feed, which pulled together news resources throughout the state during the recent storm, and our #NJVote initiative to track voting problems due to Sandy.
• – Offering peer-to-peer training and discussion of best practices in a series of Learning Lunches, using Google Hangouts on Air.
• – Helping arrange internships for the mutual benefit of Montclair State Students and news organizations in New Jersey.

This is just the beginning for the NJ News Commons, and we will be adding to our website soon. If you run a news organization in New Jersey and we haven’t reached out to you yet, please email or call 973-655-5541.

Debbie Galant
Director
NJ News Commons